Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to John chapter 9, the chapter
that we read. Reading from our text, verse
25. Verse 25. He answered and said,
whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know,
that whereas I was blind, now I see, John chapter nine, verse
25. And what is upon my spirit is
things that we know by experience. In the verse of our text, there
is a contrast. There are those things that this
dear man that was born blind and had his eyes opened did not
know. And he said so, he confessed
so. The Pharisees had said, give
God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner. Did they really? Our Lord Jesus
Christ was not a sinner, never sinned. Perfect, pure, spotless
Lamb of God. What a false state. What a solemn
thing, to profess to know something that is patently wrong. Terrible error. Well, the man that had been born
blind, he hadn't had any light on that subject. So he confesses,
he makes no judgment at this point on that whatsoever. He
says, whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. He hadn't
been shown that. Not at this point. But one thing
he had, and that he had been made to see. One thing I know,
that whereas I was blind, now I see. What a lesson for us. There will be many things that
we do not know. We may be questioned about them. We may be goaded about them. There may be unbelievers who
make very false statements about the word of God and we think
we should be able to answer this and counter this. But we haven't been clearly shown
it. And we may, like this man, be
unable to counter it. But there are those things that
we are able to say we do know. And those are the things that
we should speak and should say. Those which we have personally
experienced of God's power and work in our hearts. I want to make one thing clear,
the beginning as this is speaking about a man and a sinner, and
the Lord pointed to as if he was a sinner. This was a question
right at the very start. Even the disciples of the Lord,
when they saw this man which was blind from the birth, they
asked who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind. Now our Lord answers that neither
he nor his parents had sinned. Now we know from the word of
God that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Lord was not meaning that
he or his parents were not sinners. They were sinners like all of
us are and the Lord is not. He is the eternal Son of God
and spotless and without sin. made like unto his brethren,
yet without sin. But what the disciples were thinking
was that his parents had done an outward remarkable sin. Perhaps they had blasphemed or
perhaps they had committed murder. Perhaps they had broken the Sabbath
day and the Lord here they were stumbling at this because he
healed on the Sabbath day. That's what they were thinking.
That this was a chasing, this was a judgment, this was a solemn
judgment on that person. The Lord said no. This man that
at this point was of age, had spent all his life up to this
time blind. And the Lord says that the reason
why was that the works of God should be made manifest in him. This dear man was born and reserved
blind until this very time that this miracle should be shown
in him. God had provided him a blind
man that he should heal. And this dear man, he says, was
never known from the beginning of the world until now that a
man had opened another man's eyes. No, it had not been ever
known before. And so we would be very clear
on this concerning all have sinned, but also when we see those with
ailments, whether the deaf or the blind, the lame, that these
are not coming from the Lord as judgment from the Lord. Moses, when he protested to the
Lord that he was not eloquent, that he couldn't speak well,
and that was a reason why he would not go and do the Lord's
bidding and lead the children of Israel, God said to him, who,
who hath made man's mouth? Who hath made the blind and the
lame and the deaf? Have not I the Lord? And Moses was sent. God did not
find the impediments that Moses have as to be an obstacle or
something he didn't know about. Of course, from that time, Moses
was given Aaron to be his spokesman. What a reproof, really. But we
have this account that regarding this man that was born blind,
there is something that he has experienced of the work of God
that none could take from him. and that he held fast to and
would testify of being a personal beneficiary of this and one possessor
of a truth that he not only read about, but he'd experienced it. He couldn't have read about it.
It was something that he'd experienced. So I want to look with the Lord's
help this evening and thinking of the idea of things that are
known by experience. I want to cover it in especially
in a spiritual way. This man of course was literally given his sight again, although
we will cover and think of things in a providential way. But to
be complete, I want to look firstly at that faith must be personal. Salvation is not a general thing. It is a personal faith, personal
salvation. as we come to the point. But
then secondly, that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. That is, it must be based upon
the word of God, not upon feelings. But then in the third place,
that faith is greatly strengthened by our experience of God's work. And really, it is vital that
we do experience, like this blind man, the work of the Lord in
our hearts and in our lives. But firstly, faith must be personal. Salvation is not general. One said to me years ago, And
they were attendants at a place of worship. They said, well,
I don't know what the problem is. The Lord has come. He has died. He has put away
sin at Calvary. So sin is forgiven, sin is put
away. We just live our lives and just
enjoy our lives. Doesn't matter whether we go
to the house of God or not, it doesn't matter whether you've
got a personal faith at all, the Lord has just come and he's
just saved the world and that's it. And there is no thought whatsoever
that there must be a personal faith that men, men are under
condemnation and that unless there is a personal faith and
to being found in Christ and to have his righteousness, we
are under condemnation. We read in Romans 8 verse 1,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. But that
implies that all that are not in Christ Jesus, all that are
not believers, They are under condemnation. Our Lord's commission
for his disciples after he had suffered and bled and died was
to go into all the world, teach all nations. It was to preach
the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. But there was the other side,
he that believeth not shall be damned. There must be not a general
assent, but a personal faith. And each one of us must come
in really with this dear man that was blind, but now he does
see and say, one thing I know. We read in Paul's letter to the
Philippians, he which hath begun A good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That work is to be actually in
us, inside of us. And it will be performed and
performed until the day of Jesus Christ, when the Lord shall come
again. How is it with us? Have we a personal faith? Have
we a borrowed faith? Have we a faith that we lean
upon a parent or lean upon a form or the church or upon something
that we have just read and just decided, well, this will be,
we'll choose whether it should be this religion or that religion
or that, well, we choose this one. And we've just chosen it
out ourselves and we follow that. But there's no work of God. Faith is a gift of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of faith. All men have
not faith, we are told in the word. But faith, how does it
come? And this is what we have in our
second point. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. This is what Paul said before
the Romans in chapter 10 of his epistle to the Romans. Faith
is the evidence, we read in Romans 11, of the things not seen as
yet. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. And so faith, saving faith, is
absolutely vital. By grace, yes, through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, the free
unmerited favor of God. The Lord comes to this dear man
here, And he just gives him sight. Why? Nothing in him. And we can see it wasn't just
a last minute decision on the Lord's part to give him sight.
This man had been born blind just reserved for this very time. to show forth the glory of God. The Lord says of his people,
this people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth
my praise. And we're to show forth the praises
of him who called us out of nature's darkness and into his marvellous
light. And the little that this dear
man here knew of the Lord, We see how the faith is beginning
to work, and it works on this very things that the Lord has
done. The Pharisees were reviling him. Then they said, we know that
God spoke unto Moses, as for this fellow, we know not from
whence he is. And the man fastens on that.
He says, why, herein is a marvellous thing. He know not from whence
he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. And then he applies this, and
he says, We know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be
a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born
blind, If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. And you see how that faith has
worked from what was done in him, and he's really teaching
them. Well, they knew that. They said,
thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?
It was a pity they didn't listen, because he knew the truth. knew it personally, but you know
faith. When the Lord opens the spiritual
eyes of his people, we all are blind and this is what the Lord
said to the Pharisees here when they said, are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, if ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now ye say, we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. How many in this world? They
say, we see. We see the things of God. And yet it's very evident from
how they act and how they walk, they're still blind. They're
still in nature's darkness. They're still in love with the
world. There's no change, there is no new nature, there's no
new creature in Christ, there's no spiritual eyesight. It is vital that there be a change,
that God speaks through his word, that what we believe is based
upon the word of God, that we be given hearing ears. The Lord
said, I know my sheep, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow
me. In the letters to the revelation,
we read after each of those seven letters to the churches, he that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And it is vital that we don't
base our hopes for eternity in heaven. just on our own feelings
or our own thoughts, our own religion, it is upon the word
of God. What would someone think if they
took out an insurance on their house or a life insurance or
on the car or something like that? And they laid aside the
insurance document with all its terms and conditions and said,
we think that We know if this and this happens, then they will
pay out and we'll be able to have the benefit of this insurance. And someone comes along and says,
how do you know that? I just feel that that is right,
that that is what they should do. So that person then that
has come along picks up the insurance document and reads it and say,
do you think that you really will pay out? you know, you're
driving your car and you haven't got any road tax. And it says here in this document
that if you have an accident, you haven't got road tax, then
you're not covered. We know in natural things that
there are conditions, just about anything that we come into a
contract with today, there will be conditions. Unless those conditions
are met, then we are open to prosecution or insurances won't
be paid out. We want to know the actual words
of those that are insuring us or those that we shall be the
benefit of, of money should something go wrong. Like someone getting a new car
or something and they have their manual and they say, oh it doesn't,
don't need that, we'll just use that. And I don't read how the
manufacturer said you should do this or that and what you
should do. When we have our maker and our
maker has given us the word of God, He is also our Redeemer
and Saviour, none other name given among men, whereby we must
be saved. And He has set forth how men
are saved, their condition, how they are lost, and by what means
they can be made whole again. You know, this is what is asked
again and again in this chapter. By what means? It's almost as
if those that were questioning the blind man said, we don't
want to hear that this is a miracle. This must be a means that we
can use and that is just a normal means. Well, the Lord does use
means. The means of grace are the word
of God, the preaching of the word, prayer, supplication, the
singing, all aspects of our worship, our prayers, our singing, our
praise, all of these the Lord blesses to the souls of his people,
uses it to convey his grace, his teaching, his instruction,
peace and comfort, direction and guidance to his people, to
make known to them the way that he'd have them to walk and what
he has done for them at Calvary. These are the means, especially
the word of God, are the means that God uses, but we need his
blessing upon that means. We do even in a natural way,
how many things we do take for granted. We might take medicines,
we might take simple medicines, and we've been helped by them
so many times, we just take for granted. You got a headache? You take some Panadol, the headache
will go away. But we need the blessing upon
them. If the Lord doesn't bless them,
then they won't be effectual. But the Lord does use means. That's why we should attend to
the word of God. We should come to the house of
God. We should gather one to another, as iron sharpeneth iron,
so the countenance of a man his friend. So in this chapter, when it was
that they kept asking this man that had been blind, what was
the means? How did he do it? How were your
eyes opened? He was able to say how it was. It was a miracle, but he could
explain how that he had made clay. In verse 11, the man that is called
Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said unto me, go
to the pool of Siloam and wash, and I went and washed and I receive
sight." It's a beautiful thing if we can relate in a simple
way what means we use to bring us to faith, to bring us to believe,
to change our lives, to change our hearts, that we're able to
give God the glory. Really, in one way, it is telling
our experience, come and He or ye that fear God, I will tell
what he had done for my soul. Always like the servant of Abraham
that sought a wife for Isaac. And he was able to tell Laban
and Bethuel, Rebekah's family. And he was able to tell them
what had happened, how he prayed at the well, how his prayer had
been answered, how Rebekah had come. And when they heard him
tell it, they said, the thing proceedeth from the Lord. Take
her and go. They could see it was God's work. And we should be able to do this. God's judgment, his work is known. It is seen and it is told by
the people of God. This is. their experience, those
two on the way to Emmaus. They were able to tell when they
returned to the disciples what things were done in the way and
how he was made known of them in the opening, in the breaking
of the bread. And how then their eyes were
opened, they saw who he was. He vanished out of their sight. Where true faith is, then there
will also be a confession of faith. Again in Romans 10, Paul
says that, So, Having set forth this then of
faith and of what our hope for heaven is based upon, I want
to now come to our third point speaking of how faith is greatly
strengthened by our experience of God's work. And really we
may say it is absolutely vital that we experience God's work
in our hearts and in our lives, that we may be as certain as
this blind man was, even if it is in one point. If we are to
have assurance, if we're not to be tossed to and fro on every
wind of doctrine, you know sometimes you can have a an argument, or
is it a disagreement, or you hear something that's happened
and someone gives an account of it. And you think, yeah, that
sounds reasonable. Now I understand what's happened.
Then someone comes with a different perspective from the other side,
as it were, of the contending parties. And they tell their
version of it. And you think, well, that's also
very plausible. That's probably right as well.
And you go from one side to the other. If it'd be a court case
and you get the prosecution come along and they put their case
and you say, that sounds a very strong case. But then along come
the defense and well, that seems even stronger case. Well, if our faith, if our hope
for heaven is just based upon the strongest contender amongst
men, to convince us or to make us to have a faith that is to
follow them. We just follow a man. We shall
be of all men most miserable. But if we are like this man that
had been blind, but then he saw and he's able to say one thing,
I know, and no man could take that from him. How vital for
us that we have those things that we know. Now I want to look
at several things, several literal examples from the word of God
or other ways we may ask ourselves what do we nearly know of the
things of God. First I begin with David, King
David. Before he was king, after he
was anointed, he went to the camp when Goliath was challenging
Israel, and he heard what was said, and he was brought before
Saul, and he said that, let no man's heart fail because of him,
that he would go and fight with this Philistine. But Saul said
to him, thou canst not fight with him, thou art but a youth,
and he is a man of war from his youth. But David, he says this,
that he was keeping the sheep and there came a bear and came
a lion and he rose up and he slew the bear and the lion. He delivered the sheep out of
their hands and out of their mouths. And he said this, God that delivered
me out of the paw of the bear and out of the paw of the lion,
he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. David had proved this. The Lord
was able to deliver. God delivered him from the bear
and the lion. He was able to deliver him from
this Philistine that was defying the armies of Israel. This was not something that David
had just read. He had proved it. He knew it
was the case. And the strong faith that he
had, if you read that account, 1 Samuel 17. And you read how with such certainty,
he tells that giant, he tells Goliath, he says, I will take
your head from off you. I'll give your flesh to the fowls
of the air and the Philistines as well. All people shall know
that God of Israel And you know, he's very certain, his whole
language was certain of success. And that was faith. And it was
what he'd already experienced. Now, what do we already know
of the deliverances of the Lord? Can the Lord deliver us? Have
we been in trials and in troubles, extremities, impossibilities? And the Lord has come in for
us and delivered us and saved us. Can we come in with David when
fresh trials, fresh challenges come? He that has held me hitherto
shall help me all my journey through. Now David could come
in with this dear blind man or one that had been blind. One
thing I know that God is able to deliver me from the hand of
this Philistine. God doesn't change with his people. Once his people know they have
the Lord on their side and helping them and appearing for them,
once they have proved it, then it is something that their faith
holds fast on. And the Lord is faithful, and
that's something else that we will prove. God's faithfulness,
his faithfulness to his word, his faithfulness to his promise,
hath he said, and shall he not do it? We can read of it, we
can read of the first promises of Christ, and then we can read
of his coming. But have we also? had those things
that the Lord has said. And we've watched, and we've
waited, and we've prayed, and we've seen in the Lord's time
and way that He has done it. Can we come like Hannah? For
this child I prayed. The Lord hath given me my petition
that I asked of Him. What do we know of the Lord's
chastening hand? We think of the case of Jehoshaphat,
the godly king Jehoshaphat. He had one weakness. He kept
wanting to join with ungodly men. In fact, no doubt it was
because the kings of Israel, whether they all were descendants
of Jacob, they were of Israel, but the 10 tribes of Israel,
they had ungodly kings. And we read that in the first
book of Kings, the last chapter, at the end of that chapter, that
Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold. But
they went not, for the ships were broken at Ezion-geba. Then said Ahaziah the son of
Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, let my servants go with thy servants
in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not. Why would he not go? Well, if
we compare the other account, and look what is said in 2 Chronicles,
and chapter 20. Then we see the reason why. We read there in verse 35, After
this did Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, join himself with Ahaziah,
king of Israel, who did very wickedly. And he joined himself
with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the
ships in Ezion Kiba. Then Eliezer, the son of Dotevah
of Moreshia, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, because
thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken
thy works, and the ships were broken that they were not able
to go to Tarshish. And you put those two things
together, there is Jehoshaphat joining himself with him, there
is the prophet prophesying the ships will be broken, the ships
are broken, And then we find that Ahaziah is thinking, well,
the reason is because of your bad seamanship. You said my people
with the ships and that they won't be broken. But Jehoshaphat
had learned his lesson. He would not let them go. No,
they were not to go. One thing I know. Do we learn
from the Lord's chastening hand? We're told in Hebrews 12 that
the Lord chasteneth every son whom he receiveth. It is a mark
of sonship, a mark of the love of God. Now no chastening, for
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Yieldeth the peaceable fruits
of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. But do
we learn? Jehoshaphat learned. Once reproved,
tempted again to have another try? No, one thing I know, the
Lord will chase and He will correct and He will send the rod again.
Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying, this is the way.
Walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn
to the left. Do we know that secret? I believe bound up with this
will be the fear of the Lord. You know when it was that David
was bringing up the Ark of God to Jerusalem and they copied
the Philistines and bringing up on a cart instead of putting
it on the shoulders of the Levites. Then when the oxen shook the
ark and Uzzah put forth his hand and steadied the ark, then God
struck him dead. And David then feared to bring
up the ark, so took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom. And then when he saw that God
blessed the house of Obed-Edom, then he could bring the ark again.
But he said, don't make the same mistake. Get the Levites, put
it on their shoulders, carry it the way that God had said,
in the due order. And he'd learnt by that. It's by those things, you know,
I don't think he would have ever forgotten it. And when we've
learnt in those ways of experience, of what is pleasing to the Lord
and what is not pleasing to the Lord. Then when men say, oh no,
do it like with Jehoshaphat, with Ahaziah, let me do this,
do it this way, no. Why was it that David was so
insistent that he would not put forth his hand and touch the
Lord's anointed? Many that in the cave and other
times they tried to get him to kill, King Saul, no, says David,
he would not do it. He knew, he knew that God would
bring him to the kingdom and he would not put his own hand
to the matter. And so there are those things
that we are to prove, to actually know by experience. The apostle
Paul, We read of his conversion on the Damascus Road. And there he was blind for three
days and then received his sight. But we read even more about what
he knew personally of his own heart. We have in Romans 7, and
he's saying this, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not." He knew
it. He'd proved it. Do we prove that? Do we know that in our flesh
dwells no good thing? Do we know that we can will to
do something, but how actually to perform it? We don't know
how. Find that. He says in verse 24, a wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
He felt himself wretched because of the sin, because of what he
was by nature. Do we know that? Do we feel that? Sins, guilts, and filth. Perceived and felt, make known
God's great salvation, says the hymn writer. One other hymn writer
testified, sinners can say, and none but they, how precious is
the Saviour, that is those that feel themselves as sinners. The
Lord Jesus was given the name of Jesus, for he shall save his
people, from their sins. Do we know what the Apostle Paul
knew of grace? Grace to help in time of need. He'd been given a thorn in the
flesh. Why was he given that? Because
he'd had wonderful revelations from heaven, entered into the
third heavens, but lest he be lifted up in pride. The Lord
gave him this thorn, thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to buffet him. And he asked the Lord, Lord,
take it away. Take away this thorn. No, says
the Lord. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. We had that on Lord's
Day, didn't you, Lord's servant here, when I am weak, then Am
I strong? But the apostle had proved that.
He proved it in his own experience and all the things that he went
through in life's journey, instead of wanting to get out of them,
he was looking for the help of the Lord's grace, inward strength,
and help to bear the trials, the persecutions, the things
that he was called to pass through. May we know that same things. One thing I know, when Paul says
that I have no might or strength in self, but God's grace is sufficient. And he says later on, I laboured
more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God,
which was with me. How much then have we proved
of the Lord's word? What are the Lord's timings?
We can read in the book of Esther, and be left in no doubt how critical
the timing of the Lord was. The king could not sleep. But there is Haman, and he wants
Mordecai hung on his gallows. He comes in. If the king had
not just come to that part in the records about Mordecai, not
being rewarded for showing the conspiracy that was against the
king, then Haman would have asked his request and no doubt got
it and Mordecai would have been slain. But the king is preoccupied
with this, what shall we do for Mordecai? So his first question
with Haman, what shall be done? unto the man that the king delighteth
to honour, Haman thinks it's himself. But we look through
that book and we see how critical timings are, but what of the
book of our lives? How critical has timings been
with us, the things that have happened? Can we trace it, like
sometimes it is looking back, seen clearly? with Joseph sent
forth by his father, the man that hears his brethren say that
they're going to Dothan, that same man that crosses the path
of Joseph, that ensures that he gets to his brethren, if that
link was broken, that involved providence and the timing of
God, then All of the account of Joseph going into Egypt would
fall to the ground. It wouldn't have happened. My
life's minutest circumstance is subject to thine eye. Can we prove, can we say with
this blind man, one thing I know, the Lord is never before his
time and never too late. He always gets his timing right. And he knows exactly what is
needed and when it is needed. Have we proved it in prayer? Sometimes we might pray for years
and then the Lord suddenly answers. Have we proved that God does
hear and answer prayer? And if it is no answer as yet,
it's not because the Lord hasn't heard, Either it is that the
answer is no or not yet, or that there's something better that
is being planned and will be revealed to us from the Lord.
How many things do we actually know? Maybe we can even be reproved
by people like Balaam. Balaam was not one of God's people,
a soothsayer, and called to curse the children of Israel. But at
each altar that he asked to be raised up, he goes and hears
what the Lord would say, no doubt thinking, well, the Lord's going
to give me this time a curse for them. But each time he went
to the Lord, he found that the Lord would bless them. So in
the end, he did not go as other times. He just took his parable
and he blessed the children of Israel. He'd learned by that
way. Have we learnt enough of the
Lord that there are some things we don't even have to enquire
of the Lord? We know what the Lord's answer
will be because He's answered us so many times, He's showed
us so many times before that we can anticipate, we know. Not that we should neglect prayer,
no, it's a good thing to always come before the Lord in prayer. But what about labour? When Jacob
was to go away, wanted to go away, Laban didn't want him.
What does Laban say? He says, I have learned by experience
that God hath blessed me for thy sake. Experience is a vital thing. The things that we've handled
and tasted and felt of the work of God in our hearts and in our
lives? Have we proved the Lord's blessing
upon the word? Do we know what it is to read
the word of God and have, as it were, a light, not a literal
light, but a light shine upon a word so that we understand
it? We've never seen it before. Our
understanding is opened. And that Word is made so precious
to us, especially when we see the Saviour there. Do we know
that secret? One thing I know, that God does
bless His Word, does speak to us through His Word. What about
with the preaching? You may have heard, well, others
have been blessed under the preaching. But have we? Do we know those
times? that like those two in the way
to Emmaus, our heart has burned within us while the Lord talked
with us by the way. May we go back, may the Lord
by his spirit this evening remember to us those things that we can
say with the man here One thing I know and it may be more than
one thing we know. And we can clearly set forth
and explain what it is that the Lord has taught us from his word
and sealed one truth after another into our hearts. And if a thousand
theologians came along And hundreds of so-called godly men came along
and they tried to take it from us and to convince us that we're
wrong. We say, no, I know that. God has taught that to me. He's
shown it to me. You can't take that from me.
And you see this with this man, they couldn't take this from
him. And at this point, the Lord wasn't fully revealed to him.
Later on he did, when he was cast out, the Lord came to him,
told him clearly who he was. We don't have to have full assurance,
we don't have to be in full possession of the truth to have some things. The first line, the first lessons
of which we know very, very clearly. I think those who have just started
school When they're first taught some things, then they'll be
very, very certain of those, however simple they may be, whether
it be their colors or something other simple that they've been
taught in reception class. And where especially it's been
demonstrated or shown to them, they love to go home and tell
their parents what they've been taught, what they've learned,
what they've seen. May we be the same in the things
of God. May we be blessed with a saving
faith in Christ and a knowledge that he it is that has worked
in us and has taught us and revealed his truth to us and made us to
be personal possessors of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He answered and said, whether
he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. May the Lord bless the Word.
Amen.